Cancer Research to be Better Funded?
Referencing our previous post, “The Need to Continue Funding for Cancer Compounds” about cancer drugs in development … President Barack Obama recently announced a plan to spend $5 B on medical and scientific research, medical supplies and upgrading laboratory capacity. The funds, to come from the $787 B economic stimulus package will “pay” for cutting-edge medical research in every state across America. Could we assume that the word ”pay” might equate to “investment”? $1 B will go to research into the genetic causes of cancer and potential targeted treatments. Obama also promised a large infusion of funds into research on autism, which affects an estimated 1 in 150 U.S. children. “This kind of investment will also lead to new jobs: tens of thousands of jobs conducting research, manufacturing and supplying medical equipment, and building and modernizing laboratories and research facilities,” Obama said in a speech at the National Institutes of Health outside Washington. The more than 12,000 grant awards are part of an overall $100 B Recovery Act investment. (Reuters)
Bottom-Line:
- Pharmaceutical companies invested an estimated $65.2 B in research and development in 2008 (PhRMA),
- It takes 10-15 years for an experimental drug to travel from lab to U.S. patients,
- Discovering and developing new medicines is a long, difficult and expensive process as the U.S. system of new drug approvals is perhaps the most rigorous in the world,
- Only 1 in 5,000 compounds that enter preclinical testing make it to human testing and only 1 of those 5 is approved for sale,
- On average, it costs a company $1.3 B to get 1 new drug from the laboratory to U.S. patients, according to a 2007 study (Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development).
This ambitious “announcement” could further stimulate cancer research; but, is this political rhetoric or a true initiative for stimulus monies to assist in funding research, clinical trials and/or providing better NIH receptivity for this “plan”?
